A Vietnamese speech translation system and an iPhone navigation app based on voice recognition are among the applications recently introduced by a Ho Chi Minh City-based university.

The Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (AILab) at the University of Science, said based on its research on spoken language that earned the third prize in the 2009 Viet Talents contest, it has developed a system that can recognize and analyze Vietnamese speech.

The capacity allows Vietnamese text to be converted into audio. It also can translate Vietnamese speech into Japanese text, and vice versa, thanks to collaboration with Japan's University of Kyoto. The application even can recognize a Vietnamese song's tune and help people search for the song, the research group said.

Meanwhile, with support from the Vietnam National University HCMC, the group has launched the first version of Viet Voice System. The system can transfer phone calls to the right people without any operator at a company. Callers don't have to dial internal numbers, either, but will directly ask the system to put them through to the contacts they need to talk to, AILab said.

The group has sent its iPhone navigation application iSago, version 1.0, to Apple Store for approval.

Inspired by the Siri application for iPhone 4S developed by the US-owned SRI International, iSago helps users search for restaurants, bars and other entertainment places across HCMC.

They can make search queries by saying questions to their phones. Once users choose their desired results, they will be provided with maps or audio directions.

Associate Professor Vu Hai Quan, head of AILab, said its applications can be used in various fields like receiving reservations, selling tickets, etc.

He said the company is collecting more data of voices and command structures to increase its correctness. He said the only way to do this was to make demos of the apps available for free download.